The Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) opened in 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon as the world's first underground railway line. The railway was mostly constructed using cut and cover techniques under existing roads, though the section through Clerkenwell under Mount Pleasant hill was constructed using traditional tunnelling methods because of the depth of the tracks beneath the surface.

Because of the depth, no station was constructed at Clerkenwell, leaving a greater distance between King's Cross (now King's Cross St. Pancras) and Farringdon stations than between others on the railway. In November 1910, the MR submitted a private bill to parliament that included plans to construct a new station at Mount Pleasant.[1] The station would have been 60 feet (18 m) below ground. Parliamentary approval for the station was granted in the Metropolitan Railway Act 1911; however, the powers were not used and they lapsed in 1932.[2]

1.
Clerkenwell
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Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. It was an ancient parish and from 1900 to 1965 formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, the well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance, in the 1850s the south-western part of Clerkenwell was known as Londons Little Italy because around 2,000 Italians had settled in the area. There are officially over 200,000 Italians in London, the Italian Procession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Sagra takes place each July in the streets surrounding the church. A small number of Italian businesses remain from the century including organ builders Chiappa Ltd. Many other Italian firms survive from the period but have relocated elsewhere, Clerkenwell took its name from the Clerks Well in Farringdon Lane. In the Middle Ages, the London Parish clerks performed annual mystery plays there, Part of the well remains visible, incorporated into a 1980s building called Well Court. It is visible through a window of that building on Farringdon Lane, access to the well is managed by Islington Local History Centre and visits can be arranged by appointment. The Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem had its English headquarters at the Priory of Clerkenwell, St Johns Gate survives in the rebuilt form of the Priory Gate. Its gateway, erected in 1504 in St Johns Square, served various purposes after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, for example, it was the birthplace of the Gentlemans Magazine in 1731, and the scene of Dr Johnsons work in connection with that journal. In modern times the gatehouse again became associated with the order and was in the early 20th century the headquarters of the St John Ambulance Association, an Early English crypt remains beneath the chapel of the order, which was otherwise mostly rebuilt in the 1950s after wartime bombing. The notorious deception of the Cock Lane Ghost, in which Johnson took great interest, was perpetrated nearby, the Charterhouse, near the boundary with the City of London, was originally a Carthusian monastery. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Charterhouse became a mansion and one owner, Thomas Sutton, subsequently left it with an endowment as a school. The almhouse remains but the relocated to Surrey and its part of the site is now a campus of Barts and The London School of Medicine. As it was a suburb beyond the confines of the London Wall, Clerkenwell was outside the jurisdiction of the somewhat puritanical City fathers, during the Elizabethan era Clerkenwell contained a notorious brothel quarter. In Shakespeares Henry IV, Part 2, Falstaff complains about Justice Shallow boasting of the wildness of his youth, the Clerkenwell Bridewell, a prison and correctional institute for prostitutes and vagrants, was known for savage punishment and endemic sexual corruption. In the 17th century South Clerkenwell became a place of residence. Oliver Cromwell owned a house on Clerkenwell Close, just off the Green, several aristocrats had houses there, most notably the Duke of Northumberland, as did people such as Erasmus Smith

2.
Metropolitan Railway
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Its first line connected the main-line railway termini at Paddington, Euston, and Kings Cross to the City. It opened to the public on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, the line was soon extended from both ends, and northwards via a branch from Baker Street. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended to Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street. Electric traction was introduced in 1905 and by 1907 electric multiple units operated most of the services, unlike other railway companies in the London area, the Met developed land for housing, and after World War I promoted housing estates near the railway using the Metro-land brand. On 1 July 1933, the Met was amalgamated with the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, former Met tracks and stations are used by the London Undergrounds Metropolitan, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Piccadilly, and Jubilee lines, and by Chiltern Railways. In the first half of the 19th century the population and physical extent of London grew greatly, only Fenchurch Street station was within the City. The congested streets and the distance to the City from the stations to the north, none were successful, and the 1846 Royal Commission investigation into Metropolitan Railway Termini banned construction of new lines or stations in the built-up central area. The concept of a railway linking the City with the mainline termini was first proposed in the 1830s. Charles Pearson, Solicitor to the City, was a promoter of several schemes. The scheme was rejected by the 1846 commission, but Pearson returned to the idea in 1852 when he helped set up the City Terminus Company to build a railway from Farringdon to Kings Cross. Although the plan was supported by the City, the companies were not interested. The Bayswater, Paddington, and Holborn Bridge Railway Company was established to connect the Great Western Railways Paddington station to Pearsons route at Kings Cross, a bill was published in November 1852 and in January 1853 the directors held their first meeting and appointed John Fowler as its engineer. After successful lobbying, the company secured parliamentary approval under the name of the North Metropolitan Railway in the summer of 1853 and this dropped the City terminus and extended the route south from Farringdon to the General Post Office in St. Martins Le Grand. The route at the end was also altered so that it connected more directly to the GWR station. Permission was also sought to connect to the London and North Western Railway at Euston and to the Great Northern Railway at Kings Cross, the companys name was also to be changed again, to Metropolitan Railway. Royal assent was granted to the North Metropolitan Railway Act on 7 August 1854, construction of the railway was estimated to cost £1 million. Initially, with the Crimean War under way, the Met found it hard to raise the capital, while it attempted to raise the funds it presented new bills to Parliament seeking an extension of time to carry out the works. In July 1855, an Act to make a connection to the GNR at Kings Cross received royal assent

3.
Tramlink
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Tramlink is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It began operation in 2000, the first tram system in London since 1952 and it is owned by London Trams, an arm of Transport for London, and operated by FirstGroup. The Tramlink is the fourth-busiest light rail network in the UK behind Manchester Metrolink, Tyne and Wear Metro, in 1990 Croydon Council with London Regional Transport put the project to Parliament and the Croydon Tramlink Act 1994 resulted, which gave LRT the power to build and run Tramlink. In 1996 Tramtrack Croydon Limited won a 99-year Private Finance Initiative contract to design, build, operate, TCL was a partnership comprising FirstGroup, Bombardier Transportation, Sir Robert McAlpine and Amey, and Royal Bank of Scotland and 3i. TCL kept the revenue generated by Tramlink and LRT had to pay compensation to TCL for any changes to the fares, TCL subcontracted operations to CentreWest Buses. One of the leading to its creation was that the London Borough of Croydon has no London Underground service. There are four routes, Route 1 – Elmers End to Croydon, Route 2 – Beckenham Junction to Croydon, Route 3 – New Addington to Wimbledon, and Route 4 – Therapia Lane to Elmers End. Route 2 runs parallel to the Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction line of the Southern network between Birkbeck and Beckenham Junction – the National Rail track had been singled some years earlier. At Woodside the old station buildings stand disused, and the platforms have been replaced by accessible low platforms. From Woodside to near Sandilands and from near Sandilands almost to Lloyd Park, Tramlink follows the former Woodside and South Croydon Railway, including the Park Hill tunnels. The section of Route 3 between Wimbledon and West Croydon mostly follows the single-track British Rail route, closed on 31 May 1997 so that it could be converted for Tramlink, a partial obstruction near this point has necessitated the use of interlaced track. A Victorian footbridge beside Waddon New Road was dismantled to make way for the flyover over the West Croydon to Sutton railway line, the footbridge has been re-erected at Corfe Castle station on the Swanage Railway. In March 2008, TfL announced that it had reached agreement to buy TCL for £98m, the purchase was finalised on 28 June 2008. The background to this purchase relates to the requirement that TfL compensates TCL for the consequences of any changes to the fares, in 2007 that payment was £4m, with an annual increase in rate. In October 2008 TfL introduced a new livery, using the blue, white and green of the routes on TfL maps, the colour of the cars was changed to green, and the brand name was changed from Croydon Tramlink to simply Tramlink. These refurbishments were completed in early 2009, the tram stops have low platforms,35 cm above rail level. They are unstaffed and have automated ticket machines, in general, access between the platforms involves crossing the tracks by pedestrian level crossing. There are 39 stops, most being 32.2 m long and they are virtually level with the doors and are all wider than 2 m

4.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area

5.
Metropolitan line
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Coloured magenta on the tube map, the line is 41.4 miles in length and serves 34 stations. Unlike the tube railways, the tunnels are just below the surface, just under 67 million passenger journeys were made on the line in 2011/12. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street, from the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of Marylebone. The central London lines were electrified by 1907, but electric locomotives were exchanged for steam locomotives on trains heading north of Harrow, after the railway was absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933 the line was cut back to Aylesbury. Steam trains ran until 1961, when the line was electrified to, the Hammersmith & City line was shown on the tube map as part of the Metropolitan line until 1990, when it appeared as a separate line. The current S7 and S8 Stock trains entered service between 2010 and 2012, the track is mostly underground between Aldgate and Finchley Road, save from Barbican and Farringdon as well as the Baker Street platforms. Baker Street is the terminus for some trains not continuing on to Aldgate. The disused Metropolitan line platforms at Willesden Green and Neasden are still in place despite Metropolitan line services having been withdrawn in 1940. The Watford branch is due to be diverted to Watford Junction by 2020, resulting in the closure of Watford station, the extension will link up with the London Overground Watford DC Line and would provide an interchange with the West Coast Main Line. The Metropolitan Railway was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933 and it opened on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, the worlds first underground railway. In 1871, when plans were presented for a railway in Paris. The modern word metro is a form of the French word. The railway was extended from both ends and northwards via a branch from Baker Street. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street, from the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of Marylebone. Electric traction was introduced in 1905 with electric multiple units operating between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street, to remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the railway purchased electric locomotives, exchanged for steam locomotives at Harrow from 1908. In 1910, a silent film recording was made showing large portions of the journey from Baker Street to Aylesbury and Uxbridge. The film survives and is publicly available, unlike other railways in the London area, the Met developed land for housing, thus benefitting from the increase in the value of its land caused by the building of the railway. After World War I it promoted its housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand, to improve services, more powerful electric and steam locomotives were purchased in the 1920s

6.
Farringdon station
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Farringdon is a London Underground and connected main line National Rail station in Clerkenwell, in the London Borough of Islington, just outside of the City of London. It was opened in 1863 as the terminus of the Metropolitan Railway, today the Underground station is served by the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines between Kings Cross St. Pancras and Barbican. The station was opened on 10 January 1863 as the terminus of the original Metropolitan Railway, the station, initially named Farringdon Street, was originally a short distance from the present station building. The line ran from the Farringdon area to Paddington, a distance of 4 mi, the station was relocated on 23 December 1865 when the Metropolitan Railway opened an extension to Moorgate. It was built in conjunction with a route to take livestock to a depot to its south to supply Smithfield Market. Smithfield was redesignated as a wholesale deadmeat market only before the initiation of services, the lines from Farringdon to Kings Cross run alongside the now culverted River Fleet, which was above ground here until 1734. Thameslink trains to Moorgate ceased at the same time, there are three major rail development projects in progress that involve Farringdon. Once all projects have completed by 2023, Farringdon will be one of the countrys busiest stations with approximately 200tph which equals to a departure from the station every 20 seconds. It will be the station where passengers can change between Crossrail and Thameslink. A new building, housing a ticket hall, has been constructed to serve these extra passengers. The new building is to the south of the original station. An additional entrance has also built at the north end of the original station. Farringdon Station has been rebuilt to accommodate longer Thameslink trains and to other improvements to the station. The existing station building has been refurbished with a new roof canopy covering the end of all four platforms. Platforms have been widened to accommodate increased passenger numbers and this process required the bridge that formed Cowcross Street to be demolished and rebuilt. The existing listed ticket hall and concourse have been remodelled, for use by London Underground and it was necessary to build the Thameslink platform extensions to the south, since there is a sharp gradient to the immediate north of the station. This resulted in the branch to Moorgate being permanently closed. The platform extensions cross the former Moorgate line and reach within a few metres of the entrance of the Snow Hill Tunnel, the Farringdon Crossrail station is being built between Farringdon and Barbican Underground stations and it will have interchanges with both of them

7.
Tunnel
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A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through the surrounding soil/earth/rock and enclosed except for entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube construction techniques rather than traditional tunnel boring methods, a tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. The central portions of a transit network are usually in tunnel. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers, utility tunnels are used for routing steam, chilled water, electrical power or telecommunication cables, as well as connecting buildings for convenient passage of people and equipment. Secret tunnels are built for military purposes, or by civilians for smuggling of weapons, contraband, special tunnels, such as wildlife crossings, are built to allow wildlife to cross human-made barriers safely. A tunnel is relatively long and narrow, the length is much greater than twice the diameter, although similar shorter excavations can be constructed. The definition of what constitutes a tunnel can vary widely from source to source, for example, the definition of a road tunnel in the United Kingdom is defined as a subsurface highway structure enclosed for a length of 150 metres or more. In the United States, the NFPA definition of a tunnel is An underground structure with a length greater than 23 m. The place where a road, railway, canal or watercourse passes under a footpath, cycleway, or another road or railway is most commonly called a bridge or, if passing under a canal, an aqueduct. Where it is important to stress that it is passing underneath, it may be called an underpass, a longer underpass containing a road, canal or railway is normally called a tunnel, whether or not it passes under another item of infrastructure. An underpass of any length under a river is usually called a tunnel. In the US, the term means an underground rapid transit system. Rail station platforms may be connected by tunnels or footbridges. Much of the technology of tunneling evolved from mining and military engineering. The etymology of the mining, military engineering, and civil engineering reveals these deep historic connections. A major tunnel project must start with an investigation of ground conditions by collecting samples from boreholes. An informed choice can then be made of machinery and methods for excavation and ground support, in planning the route, the horizontal and vertical alignments can be selected to make use of the best ground and water conditions. It is common practice to locate a tunnel deeper than otherwise would be required and this may be a particular concern in large-diameter tunnels

8.
King's Cross St. Pancras tube station
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Kings Cross St. Pancras is a London Underground station located within the London Borough of Camden. It serves Kings Cross and St Pancras main line stations and falls within fare zone 1, being an interchange station between six lines, it is the second busiest station on the network, second only to Waterloo. The three lines share common tracks in this area, on the Northern line Bank branch, between Euston and Angel. On the Piccadilly line, between Russell Square and Caledonian Road, on the Victoria line, between Euston and Highbury & Islington. Kings Cross serves long distance inter city services on the East Coast Main Line and regional services mainly for commuters, the expanded station has four entrances, and was opened to the public in November 2009. The main ticket hall is in front of Kings Cross station and it has been expanded and refurbished and is signposted as the Euston Road way out from the tube lines. The Pentonville Road entrance was the ticket hall for Kings Cross Thameslink station and has underground passageway connections to the Piccadilly. It was taken over by London Underground when the Thameslink platforms closed, the Western Ticket Hall is under the forecourt of St Pancras station, adjacent to Euston Road. It provides access to St Pancras Station via the St Pancras undercroft, the Northern Ticket Hall is west of Kings Cross station platform 8, underneath the main concourse. The London Underground ticket hall and associated connections to the lines were opened on 29 November 2009. It is signposted as the Regents Canal way out from the tube lines, the first underground station at Kings Cross opened as part of the original section of the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 and was rearranged in 1868 and 1926. One of the platforms may be seen from Underground trains between the present station and Farringdon, the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway platforms opened with the rest of the line in December 1906, while the City & South London Railway arrived in May 1907. The Victoria line platforms came into use on 1 December 1968 with the opening of the phase of the line. The Victoria line escalators cut through the location of the original Piccadilly line lifts, on 18 November 1987 the station was the scene of a devastating fire that killed 31 people. As a result, fire safety procedures on the Underground were tightened, staff training was improved, the existing prohibition of smoking throughout the London Underground network was tightened. On 7 July 2005, as part of a bomb attack. Each station had its own unique tile pattern and colours, since 1991, a route for a potential Crossrail 2 has been safeguarded, including a connection at Kings Cross St Pancras and Euston, forming the station Euston Kings Cross St Pancras. The proposed scheme would offer a rail link between Kings Cross and Victoria in addition to the Victoria line

9.
Kensington (Olympia) station
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Kensington is a combined rail and tube station in Kensington, West London. It is managed and served by London Overground and also served by Southern and it is in Travelcard Zone 2. The stations name is drawn from its location in Kensington and the adjacent Olympia exhibition centre. A station was opened by the West London Railway as its terminus on 27 May 1844 as Kensington, just south of Hammersmith Road. A scant and erratic goods service continued, the line re-opened to passengers with a new station called Addison Road on 2 June 1862, Great Western Railway trains started serving the station in 1863, with London & North Western Railway trains arriving in 1872. A link to the Hammersmith & City Railway enabled the Middle Circle service to operate via Paddington to the north and South Kensington to the south. From 1869, the London & South Western Railway operated trains from Richmond to London Waterloo via Addison Road, by 1907 the Middle Circle had been replaced by four Hammersmith & City line trains an hour. The station appears on the first London Underground map in 1908 with Metropolitan, in 1940, Addison Road and the link to the Metropolitan line at Latimer Road closed along with the other West London Line stations. There was also a District line shuttle to Earls Court, the current District line bay platform opened in 1958, but the 1872 connection between the District and the main line south of the station was not finally lifted until 1992. London Underground ran a train from Earls Court only when an exhibition was on at Olympia. In 1981 the Motorail facility was closed, from 12 May 1986, services at the station were greatly enhanced. Southern Region destinations included Brighton, Newhaven Harbour and Dover Western Docks, as part of this the footbridge was painted in InterCity colours. These were operated by the InterCity division of British Rail, then after privatisation by Virgin CrossCountry, there were two bay platforms on the south-eastern side mainly used by services from Clapham Junction. The land behind the platform was sold for redevelopment. There was an Express Dairies creamery and milk bottling plant close to the served by milk trains from the Great Western Railway from Old Oak Common to a siding adjacent to the station. Kensington was included in cold war plans to ensure continuity of government in the event of the Cold War taking a hot turn, in 1994, a full passenger service between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction was reinstated after a gap of 54 years. The planned Regional Eurostar and Nightstar services were to call at platform 2 to undertake border control procedures, the services to Plymouth and Swansea were scheduled to change motive power from a British Rail Class 92 to a Class 37/6 here. Secret plans entailed use of the station, in the prelude to a nuclear war, the ticket office was refurbished in 2011 with the upholstered seating, plants and lighting removed

10.
Uxbridge tube station
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Uxbridge is a London Underground station in Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, north-west London. The station is the terminus of the Uxbridge branches of both the Metropolitan line and the Piccadilly line, the next station towards London is Hillingdon. The station is 15.5 miles west of Charing Cross and is in Travelcard Zone 6, the closest station on the Chiltern Line and Central line is West Ruislip, accessible by the U1 and U10 buses. The closest station on the First Great Western line is West Drayton, accessible by the U1, U3, Uxbridge was formerly the terminus of a branch of the District line which ran from Ealing Common, the Piccadilly line replaced the District line in 1933. The Harrow and Uxbridge Railway first opened a station in Uxbridge on 4 July 1904 on Belmont Road, the station was situated on a different track alignment, now used as sidings. The original service from central London was provided by steam-drawn trains, the London United Tramways extension from Shepherds Bush was opened a few weeks before the underground station. The manager, as reported in a newspaper at the time, commented on the high prices of the underground journey. The original Belmont Road station had two platforms, and after the introduction of shared operation one platform was used by each line, on 23 October 1933 District line services to Uxbridge were replaced by Piccadilly line trains. On 4 December 1938 the current station was opened on a new alignment, on 12 January 1983, the station buildings were given Grade II listed status. The London Borough of Hillingdon announced in June 2011 that it would be lobbying Transport for London to have the Central line diverted from West Ruislip station to Uxbridge. Such a project would require a business case approved by TfL, a tall concrete canopy arches over the tracks with a row of clerestory windows above the platforms. The canopy at Uxbridge is similar to the one at Cockfosters, the stained glass panels by Erwin Bossanyi at the booking hall end of the platforms reflect the areas heraldic associations. The crown and three seaxes on a red background are the arms of Middlesex County Council and the swan on a black. The forecourt of the new station was laid out to provide a turning circle for trolleybuses

11.
Chesham tube station
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Chesham is a London Underground station in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. It is served by the Metropolitan line and is the terminus and only station on the Chesham branch, the station is in London fare Zone 9. The station was opened on 8 July 1889 by the Metropolitan Railway and it is a Grade II listed building. It is both the northernmost and westernmost London Underground Station, on 16 and 17 August 2014 the branch line celebrated its 125th anniversary of operating. It was celebrated using London Undergrounds first steam locomotive, Metropolitan 1 and it ran from Rickmansworth to Chesham, meaning that the line from Chalfont and Latimer to Chesham had to be closed for a period of time to allow for the special service. The station was opened on 8 July 1889 by the Metropolitan Railway as the temporary northern terminus when the railway was extended from Rickmansworth. The line had been intended to cross the Chilterns and connect to main line serving the north. From Chesham the line would have continued north to connect to the London, however, before work was begun, the MR chose an alternative route across the Chilterns via Aylesbury. The line to Chesham was retained as a branch from the new route, although the MR continued to buy land between Chesham and Tring for some years after the stations opening, the route was never extended further. The station originally had a yard and two platforms, but the goods yard was closed in July 1966, and one of the two platforms was closed in November 1970. The goods yard site is now the car park for the station, the station is a Grade II listed building. Since 12 December 2010, Chesham has had an 8-car train every 30 minutes direct to London, in the morning and evening peak, trains run non-stop between Moor Park and Harrow-on-the-Hill, then calling at Finchley Road and all stations to Aldgate. During off-peak times trains now call at all stations to Aldgate, although the reasons for the new service pattern were largely technical, it was expected to ease congestion on local roads by increasing Cheshams attractiveness to park-and-ride motorists. Transport for London, Chesham Town Council